2015-2016 PROGRESS REPORT: THE 256-CHANNEL ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM SYSTEM FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH

2015-2016 Progress Report: FROM THE 256-CHANNEL ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM SYSTEM FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH

Thanks to the support of B.C. Schizophrenia Society Foundation, the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry has successfully completed the purchase and implementation of a 256-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) system to advance the Department’s schizophrenia research program. This state-of-the-art equipment will enable UBC schizophrenia researchers and their colleagues in mind and brain health research to develop more nuanced models of the relationship between symptoms and brain function, increasing the speed with which new therapies can be developed and tested for the benefit of patients with schizophrenia and other brain disorders in British Columbia. Data collection for research using this system started in September 2015 for four schizophrenia-related studies, all being conducted by Dr. Todd Woodward, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Schizophrenia Laboratory.

Functional brain networks underlying non-pharmaceutical interventions for psychosis A study aimed to contribute to the body of evidence supporting methods for bringing strength and organization back to the brain networks affected in psychosis through the use of group-based education and training sessions.

Schizophrenia patients with delusions have difficulty integrating new evidence that contradicts current beliefs, and this may contribute to the maintenance of delusions. This study investigates whether these brain networks are impaired in schizophrenia patients with delusions, compared to patients without delusions and healthy controls.

Decision-making and schizophrenia and the salience networkThis study investigates whether salience networks used in decision-making are impaired in schizophrenia, compared to healthy controls.Neurological networks underlying working memory in psychosisThe purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of the brain networks underlying persistent cognitive impairments (present throughout the course of schizophrenia) in working memory.[Full progress report available]

B.C. Schizophrenia Society Foundation raises funds for schizophrenia research and the programs and services offered by B.C. Schizophrenia Society. The Foundation was officially founded on November 17, 2004 as the Dr. Norma Calder Foundation and was later renamed the MIND Foundation before becoming B.C. Schizophrenia Society Foundation in 2013.